Li Zhixiang was not embarrassed to say that he was Wang Xuance's second, because Wang Xuance was only a Huangshui county commander back then, and he also served as a deputy envoy.

But the problem is that Li Zhixiang is now the commander of the Ming Royal Navy, an official military attaché, not to mention that there are more than 300 guards by his side.

Until the end of the battle, the guards around Li Zhixiang felt a little regretful.

In fact, a Hunan guard said: "Their army is too weak, and our village fights are more fierce than them!" ”

This Hunan soldier didn't brag, not to mention that the Hunan region in the Qing Dynasty was very chaotic, bandits and Tusi were armed to almost often fight, and the scene of water fights between villages was quite hot, swords, guns and sticks were trivial, and wooden artillery and firearms were the royal road, and the government did not dare to care.

A Venetian captain said: "The army of this country of Ceylon is so bad, you don't need to plan anything to deal with them, you can scare them into collapse with a few shots and a few rounds of guns!" ”

Li Zhixiang sighed and said: "This commander thought that the guards of the Ming Dynasty were bad enough, but he never thought that there would be such a bad army...... Forget it, to say that they are the army is simply an insult to the word army! All the soldiers, attack, completely crush them! ”

If you want to say that the army of the Ming Dynasty is rotten, it needs a prerequisite, lack of food and ammunition, if you give enough military salaries, ammunition is enough, and even do not need to strengthen training, the Ming army will be like an army, like a wolf and a tiger.

In fact, the Ming Royal Army absorbed a lot of guards and gave them the treatment of the Ning Navy, and their combat effectiveness rose sharply.

Just when Li Zhixiang led a temporary patchwork towards the collapsed Ceylon army, an accident happened, and more than a dozen foreign devils walked towards Li Zhixiang.

They took the interpreter with them and shouted: "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding......"

Li Zhixiang looked at the dozen or so foreign devils, and said with an unkind face: "Who are you?" ”

"Your Excellency General Daming, we are from the Kingdom of Portugal, dos Santos, the Governor of Sri Lanka!"

Santos showed a smile that he thought was very charming to Li Zhixiang: "This is a beautiful misunderstanding, our Kingdom of Portugal has a close relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and now this is the territory of the King of Portugal, please Your Excellency the General, for the sake of the friendship between our two countries, don't continue the war!" ”

"This is Portuguese territory?"

Li Zhixiang sneered with a sneer on his face: "So, can I think so, you Portuguese attack the Ming Royal Navy, this is a war, sir, our Ming Dynasty is a big country, will not declare war, please go back and tell your king, the Ming Royal Navy issued a war letter to the Kingdom of Portugal, an official ultimatum, and then issued, so stay tuned!" ”

"No ......"

Hearing the interpreter's explanation, Santos's cold sweat flowed: "This is a misunderstanding!" ”

"Fuck you misunderstanding!"

Li Zhixiang grabbed Santos's collar and said: "The people here, indiscriminately, attack the guards of the commander, this is an undeclared war, this is a sneak attack, wash your neck and wait!" ”

"Your Excellency General, we can talk, we can talk!"

Santos hurriedly said: "You Daming has a saying that even the smartest people will make mistakes, Your Excellency General, you have to give a person who makes mistakes a chance to correct it!" ”

Li Zhixiang has been following Cheng Shijie for six or seven years, of course, he also knows Cheng Shijie's character and temper, and he must be tough on the outside, otherwise he will wait to be dealt with.

Of course, Li Zhixiang did not order to continue the offensive and kill all these Ceylon natives, for the Portuguese, there was no loss, the important thing was this position.

Even if Li Zhixiang is ignorant, he knows the importance of Ceylon Island to the Ming Dynasty, and it must be occupied, even if it is a port, it will be of great benefit.

Just on the beach, where Li Zhixiang's Luoyang was stranded, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty began to light fires and start cooking. As for the Western merchants and armed sailors who were temporarily hired by Li Zhixiang, they took out the biscuits and bread they carried with them and gnawed them on them.

The food of the Ming army has always been inferior to the navy, and the navy's cooks pay attention to a little, using the rice supplied from the coconut city to cook a pot of fragrant rice, every ten soldiers around a canned sauerkraut fat rice, the sour sauerkraut makes them appetite, and the large piece of fat provides sufficient heat for their body.

Although it is said that there is no need to shoot a strong crossbow in battle now, as in the era of cold weapons, the problem is that because the enemy collapsed too quickly, they caught up for more than thirty miles, and their physical strength was huge, and their thighs were even more sore, and there was really no way to replenish their physical strength without eating some high-fat food.

Thoughtful cooks don't forget to get everyone some after-dinner drinks, they boil the water, take out pieces of cheese that are as hard as stones and throw them into the pot, then add sugar, tea leaves and a small amount of salt to boil a pot of thick tea soup for everyone to enjoy.

This drink is fragrant and delicious, not only helps digestion, but also allows people to quickly recover their strength, and is extremely popular in the Ming army, and has become an indispensable drink in the daily life of the Ming army.

This is an eye-opener for Westerners, you must know that in Europe, tea is a luxury, with their salary, there is no opportunity to buy, even the cheapest tea, it takes their half a month's salary to buy a can.

Of course, at this time, there was no small packaging like the later generations, and the smallest tea canister was also packed in one catty, plus the tea caddy was also made of porcelain, which directly drove the value of tea, which was still the high income of ocean-going sailors, and if it was their salary in China, they couldn't afford it at all.

These Westerners watched the Ming gang throw bags of tea into the pot as if they didn't want money, and unconsciously swallowed their saliva. Probably only the Ming people are so arrogant, they don't take tea seriously, how can they be hard-pressed sailors.

They looked at the sumptuous dinner of the Ming army, and then looked at the hard, dry biscuits in their hands, which could be used as a meteor hammer to smash life and death with a rope tied in a net pocket, they wanted to cry from the bottom of their hearts, why is the gap so big?

At this time, Europe faced the Ming Dynasty, and the heart was full of envy, the Ming Dynasty's profound culture, huge population base, exquisite civilization, dazzling food clothes, exquisite silk porcelain, majestic palaces,

All this made them amazed and sighed to themselves. No way, the gap is too big, when the wealth of the Song Dynasty threw off the eighteen streets of other countries on the planet, Europeans were still staying in castles full of cobwebs and feces and munching on beans.

Now the Europeans have a little money, but the material is still poor, take eating this aspect, in addition to vegetables, fruits, sausages, beef, potatoes, they don't seem to know what else to eat, and the way of eating is so many things, monotonous to death, in the face of the big foodie empire that day to eat three dishes of the same food for a lifetime, it is absolutely impossible for them not to feel inferior.

Fortunately, the Ming army was not stingy, for the sake of everyone fighting side by side, they generously invited them to come over to taste their drinks, and everyone had a canned box each, and drank happily around the fire.

Located in Li Zhixiang's big tent, Santos poured two bad milk tea in one go, until his belly bulged high and he reluctantly put down the cup, wiped his lips with his sleeve, looked at Li Zhixiang and said: "Your Excellency the General, it's really not good, if I dare to sign, after I go back, our King will hang me......

Li Zhixiang actually doesn't know how to negotiate, but the problem is that when the country is strong enough, resourcefulness and skill don't matter, Li Zhixiang took the map and directly pointed at the island of Ceylon, from a position close to two-thirds.

Thus, the area south of the central mountain range of Ceylon Island was divided in Kandy, the old capital of the original Ceylon State, with Portugal in the south and Ming in the north.

Li Zhixiang said lightly: "If you provoke the war between the Ming Dynasty and Portugal, your king will trample your entire family to death!" ”

Li Zhixiang did not threaten Santos either, this is certainly true.

Not to mention Portugal, whose strength is far inferior to the Dutch, even if it is the Dutch, they dare not easily provoke the Ming Dynasty.

Santos resorted to delaying tactics and wanted to stall for time.

Li Zhixiang is also stalling for time.

In the early morning of the next day, a Portuguese sailor docked on the coast suddenly saw more than 20 tall warships appear on the sea, all of which were hoisting the dragon flag of the Ming Dynasty.

When Santos was still asleep, he was woken up by his men, and the Ming warship came.

Santos hurriedly found Li Zhixiang and told him that he had figured it out and immediately signed a contract, and all areas north of Kandy, including Kandy City, would be owned by the Ming Dynasty, and the south would be occupied by Portugal.

It wasn't until he saw Daming's battleship that he knew what Santos was really afraid of, he was really afraid that the Daming battleship would take the entire island of Ceylon in one fell swoop, you must know that Portugal also has more than 20 warships in Ceylon, but the problem is that their battleships are far inferior to Daming's warships in terms of guns and displacement.

If the two sides go to war, Santos believes Portugal will not hold out for a day.

Holding on for one day is considered their bragging, and being able to hold on for an hour is considered to be capable.

Hearing the news that Li Zhixiang was found, Li Fang finally breathed a sigh of relief, if he lost Li Zhixiang, he didn't dare to think about what his fate would be.

Fortunately, Li Zhixiang was fine, but the problem was that without waiting for Li Fang to get excited, Chen Fugui reported: "General, there are ships heading towards us!" ”

Li Fang asked, "How many ships are there?" ”

Chen Fugui said: "More than 20 ships! ”

Li Fang got up and walked onto the deck, and sure enough, he saw a ship approaching this direction several miles away.

Li Fang said depressedly: "What the hell, they seem to be surrounding us? ”

At this time, the guide also ran over, looking at the rapidly approaching fleet on the opposite side, his face turned pale, and shouted, "Yes...... It's a pirate! ”

"Pirates? How can you be sure it's a pirate? ”

As he spoke, the pirate fleet had already dispersed, spreading out left and right in a wild goose formation, and stubbed towards the left and right flanks of the Ming fleet. These pirates' boating skills are quite powerful, their ships shuttle freely in the reef-dense waters, this dangerous sea area is like their backyard, this boating skills, really make the Ming sailors dumbfounded, sighing to themselves.

What made Li Fang even more unbelievable was that although they were not all the warships of the entire expeditionary force, the problem was that they were the Chinese military formation of the large fleet, and there were sixteen Seawolf-class warships alone, as well as eight Seashark-class and four Giant Shark-class, a total of twenty-eight warships.

Ships of this size, even if they meet the combined fleet of the Dutch East India Company, they will have to be as big as a fight, but these pirate ships are ignorant and fearless, and their number is about the same as that of the Ming fleet, and they dare to take the initiative to fight an annihilation encirclement.

"What the hell, pirates robbing warships, are they having in their heads?"

Li Fang really couldn't figure it out. I really can't figure it out.

There was a faint flute sound in the sea breeze, flickering, melodious and long, melodious and treacherous and gloomy, the whole melody was very strange, and the Ming soldiers who heard the flute were inexplicable.

But the guide's legs were weak, trembling, and terrified, and he said, "Yes...... It's the Ottoman pirates! It's a red beard! Here they are, and we are dead! ”

"What is a pirate? What is a red beard? ”

The guide couldn't even speak: "Ah...... Pander to...... Ah......"

"What a!"

Li Fang slapped him over.

The guide finally came to his senses.

"What are they? Redbeard, how can you be sure they're Redbeard? ”

The guide introduced: "One of the major features of Redbeard is that after surrounding a fleet, he will play the flute in the bow of the ship, warning the surrounded fleet, if the surrounded fleet takes the initiative to hand over the belongings and beauties on the ship after hearing the flute, it is possible to save his life, if he hears the flute and ignores it, he will kill the chickens and dogs!" ”

Li Fang sneered: "It's quite arrogant!" Okay, I want him to be cool this time! After the battle breaks out, don't bombard the deck of Redbeard's flagship with cannons, hit me at the waterline, I'm going to capture him alive and tear him in two! ”

About three or four nautical miles away, on a warship with a tonnage of nearly 600 tons, a black flag hunted and flew in the sea breeze, and in the black flag, the empty eyes of a huge skeleton were staring coldly at the opposite fleet.

Under the skull, a tall man sat cross-legged at the bow of the boat, his eyes closed, playing a strange and heart-pounding tune with a crystal clear white jade flute, his long beard hanging down to his chest, black and shiny.

PS: I'm very sorry, Lao Cheng has been sleepy recently, he doesn't wake up for fourteen hours a day, he has no energy all day, he fell asleep at nine o'clock last night, he didn't update, he wanted to make up for it today, but he didn't hold on, and it is estimated that the body has not allowed Lao Cheng to engage in this work anymore. (End of chapter)